


Beyond the Three Laws

by teicakes



Category: Free!
Genre: Android AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-01
Updated: 2014-02-01
Packaged: 2018-01-03 03:04:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1064998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teicakes/pseuds/teicakes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>HARU the most revolutionary android of his time, possessing the capability to grow and develop through the most advanced A.I. code on record. But each layer of personality is wrapped in firewalls, only unlockable through specific response patterns encrypted by his now deceased creator Dr. Nanase.</p><p>Since her death HARU has been maintained by one Makoto Tachibana, the only engineer ever tolerated by the stoney android. Though functioning beautifully, his personality has remained stagnant for years, stuck in the same routine ever since the young developer (and budding hacker) Rin Matsuoka left to learn overseas. </p><p>With Rin’s return to Japan comes his longstanding rivalry against HARU’s internal security. Just how many barriers can he break down, and at what cost?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_‘When you’re created they call you a miracle,_  
 _When you’re 5 they call you a scientific marvel,  
_ _When you’re 10 you’re just another machine.”_

HARU sighed as another series of images flashed before his eyes: a crying baby wailing for it’s mother, a girl beside him on the beach looking longingly his way, war footage of soldiers storming the beaches. He racked his memory for how long he’d been alive. Still 3 years, 4 months, 23 days, 6 hours, 47 minutes and 32… wait 31 seconds until he no longer needed to deal with such trivialities. 

It hadn’t been his choice to be this way. Had he had any say in his construction he’d have picked something different, something less annoying then the AI hardware encrypted within himself. An android with the most advanced artificial intelligence on record. A machine with the ability to develop and learn to feel based on its environment. A machine whose personality would develop as it unlocked more and more levels of it’s programing through experience. To the scientists who surrounded his world he was a marvel. But when they realized they couldn’t access the code they grew impatient. Firewall after firewall blocked them – and HARU himself – from reaching the deeper layers of his person. And because of that he had to put up with these ridiculous tests.

A video of a child in a pool, screaming and thrashing to stay afloat flickered across the screen surrounding him. He knew he should be feeling concerned, ready to jump in the waters and save the tot before it’s head slipped under the surface for the last time. But he couldn’t bring himself to care. Everything they showed him wasn’t real. They were outdated footage of people long gone, or stock scenarios filmed with actors. There was no reason he should care.

He almost longed for them to resume their attempts at breaking his firewalls the old fashioned way, through viruses and programs and hacking. At least then there had been more of a thrill, the rush of danger as their bashes against his security risked his own safety. But they’d always been tame, triple checking their plans before challenging him, ensuring that nothing they’d written would risk the code they so desperately craved. 

At long last the videos stopped, the lights of the laboratory turning on as shuffles and mummers filled the room. Men and women in lab coats shook their heads as they looked at monitors, confirming the lack of results HARU already knew to be true. Makoto, his engineer scampered over, tool belt clanking, beginning his usual post-exam. 

“You feeling okay? Any loss of function anywhere? Any memory files deleted? Overheating?”

HARU rolled his eyes and flicked Makoto’s nose. “No, none. Now can you unplug me from this already?” he gestured at the cables fanning out from his earports, tapping his foot with impatience.

Makoto ignored his request, glancing him over for loose fittings or any signs of issue. Despite being annoyingly protective, he was the one person HARU could tolerate having around him for longer then testing periods. Unlike the stuffy programmers he at least let the android have a few small freedoms, following him around the complex where he’d otherwise be confined to storage. Still, when he went on his obsessive inspections HARU questioned why he let him stick around.

“You check out fine, though your left pinky is reacting a little slow,” muttered Makoto as he gently eased the cables out of HARU’s head. “I suppose it can wait to be fixed until another day without testing, but still…” he scratched his head, “ah well, I get the sense you’re not going to let me fix it now.”

A curt nod was HARU’s only acknowledgement of Makoto’s words. He shoved past the brunette, albeit a bit roughly, and made his way to the door, listening for the frantic squeaking of sneakers that was guaranteed to follow. He was tailed out into the hall, Makoto falling in step beside him as they made their way out of Research and Development. 

“We’ve got a few hours until you need to head back to your locker, what are you feeling up to? Chess? Video games? Maybe a movie? I wouldn’t mind if we stopped by the cafeteria. I know you couldn’t care less, but I skipped lunch so can we make a detour?”

Makoto chattered on, filling what would otherwise be a blissful silence. HARU let him drag them to the company cafeteria to buy a sandwich before pulling him by the elbow back down the halls before he’d managed two bites. He was feeling antsy, and being tied down to Makoto right now wasn’t going to help that. He needed to be outside.

Mid-step he changed directions, causing Makoto to almost trip over a garbage can in the process. HE ignored the protests that filled his ears and made his way to the overhead walkway that connected this building to the one next to it. Through the glass they could see the city laid out below them, little people scurrying across the streets like ants. When he was young they’d fascinated him for hours. Hours had been spent watching them from up here, asking Dr. Nanase questions in broken sentences about humans. He missed the old woman. Without her presence, the sight below no longer held the same magic.

By this point Makoto had figured his destination out, already protesting against it. “HARUUUU,” he whined as the android reached into the engineer’s pocket and dug around. “You know you’re not supposed to be here. This is only for company personnel.”

“Well you’re here with me aren’t you?” quipped HARU as he extracted the keycard from the pocket and swiped it through the access panel. “Besides, developers bring their own androids here, so why can’t I come?”

“Because…” Makoto began, but HARU has already disappeared inside. With a sigh he followed his charge into his room. It was a small company dorm, sparsely furnished

HARU was already locked in on his goal, rifling through Makoto’s drawers and flinging the contents out in his search. A wail came from the boy as HARU’s searching grew even more feverish. The robot paused for a second to check on him. A pair of his boxers hung of his head, face frozen in disbelief as he stood surrounded by shirts and pants strewn about the room. 

“HARU… if you’re looking for it, it’s in the top left. Can you please stop throwing my clean clothes around?” The droid shrugged, pulling on a pair of Makoto’s smaller jeans and a hoodie before opening the top left drawer. 

Carefully he removed the contents, one light brown wig, and pulled it over his own synthetic hair, painstakingly tucking in the black strands beneath it. He’d never understood the point behind giving him hair. It wasn’t as if it grew, or did anything useful. It was just there for aesthetics and for Makoto to ruffle when the boy was feeling particularly chummy. 

Satisfied with his preparations, he turned to his companion. A smaller, blue-eyed Makoto looked at back at the real thing, fussing with the last few strands of black hair that stuck out from underneath. Makoto had grown quiet, as he always did when HARU dressed up as his double. His lips were pursed together, pained eyes falling upon HARU’s face. 

“You know I can’t let you do this,” he whispered. “If you get caught you’ll never be allowed anywhere outside of the lab again. And what if you get kidnapped, or damaged? I might not be able fix you. You can’t.”

“I’m always fine aren’t I?” Every time it was the same thing. Makoto trying to talk HARU out of this, only to give in and let the bot has his way. If HARU’s memory was correct – which it probably was – he’d been let out 163 times out of 163 times. It was highly unlikely that Makoto’d ever enforce his rules long enough for him to actually need to obey. 

“Yeah, you’re right, “ said Makoto through a shaky breath, putting on a smile. He pulled his miniature into a tight embrace, rubbing his head before letting go. “Be back before 5, and take my cell just in case you get into trouble, okay?” HARU nodded, leaving Makoto to pick up his fallen clothes as the door eased shut.

\--------------------------------

The streets were even more crowed now then when he’d seen them earlier. Rush-hour had brought workers out in throngs, shoving up against HARU and jostling his this way and that. Despite the cramped sidewalks, he felt at ease. Being outside of he complex, wandering around as another anonymous member of the city HARU always felt freer, happier, then in the sterile white hallways. Here he could be alone with his thoughts without worries of anyone badgering him.

Sneaking out into the city had never been hard. As soon as he’d learned all he needed was a company keycard to get in and out it’d only been a matter of asking Makoto for his. Although he only managed to get out once or twice a week (it was as much as Makoto would let him), it gave him a chance to see the real world. The footage he was shown back home was nothing compared the sights and smells and choices he could have out here.

As he turned the corner towards a nearby park, his thoughts lingered on Makoto. Despite his trademark dazed smile, the brunette often looked distressed, chewing his lip or fiddling with his hands when he thought no one was looking. Having to deal with those types of feelings, being affected by the smallest of triggers, it was hard to imagine ever wanting them. And the expression he always wore when HARU dressed up… what was it? Something he’d yet to unlock?

Wrapped up in his thoughts he failed to notice the person in front of him stop and turn. HARU bounded off the man’s chest, landing on the pavement. The stranger began lecturing him as he rubbed his head, checking to see the wig was still in place

“Watch where you’re going, would you?“You can’t walk around witho… Makoto?”

HARU froze, head snapping up to meet the stranger’s gaze. Red eyes met blue. The familiar maroon locks, the jagged teeth… the face of someone long gone.

“Rin?”


	2. Chapter 2

“Rin?” 

There was almost no doubt about it. The man standing atop HARU, bending down to pull him up was Rin, remerging as suddenly into his life as he had left. 

“Long time no see, huh Mako? What’s it been? Two years?” Rin chuckled, beginning to dust him off. His hands swiped along HARU’s arms, barely missing the android’s shoulder joint and causing the latter to jump back a bit. He couldn’t let Rin know he was masquerading as Makoto, not with getting into serious trouble.

“Y-yeah…” he stammered. “Long time. But I need to get going now, so maybe I’ll see you another time.” He began backing away, attempting to paste Makoto’s typical silly grin on his face to fool Rin.

“Makoto, you okay?”

Evidently it wasn’t working as well as he’d hoped. 

“I’m fine. I just… don’t have time for you right now. I have to get back to work.” HARU spun on his heel and fled.

“Makoto!” Rin grabbed his arm – hard – and in that instant HARU knew he was found out. His synthetic shell didn’t give way like human skin. The cables beneath wouldn’t feel like warm flesh. He turned back in panic, wide blues meeting reds. 

“Since when have you had blue eyes?” Rin squinted at him, pulling his face roughly towards his own. “And weren’t you always just the slightest bit taller then me?” His thumb rubbed against HARU’s cheek, and the android froze as he felt Rin’s fingers reach for his ear and probe against the hard metal of his connection port. If he needed to breathe he would have stopped a long time ago.

“You’re not Makoto now, are you?” 

HARU simply stared back at him blankly; hoping mute silence might give some aid to this situation.

Rin leaned in close, so that his next words were only audible to the two of them.

“I know you’re not human. So you’d better tell me just what you are and why you’re copying someone I know before your hardware gets scrambled beyond repair.”

He had no choice. His only out was to tell Rin and hope the redhead let him return back to the company. Slowly, he lifted his left arm until it was at eye level, pulling back his sleeve and revealing the underside of his wrist. Printed on the inside in barely visible characters were the words ‘Humanization Attainment and Replication Unit – 63017563’. 

Rin’s lips moved as he read the stamp, scarlet hues widening as he realized the familiar acronym it stood for. 

“HARU?”

The android nodded, pulling his sleeve back down and looking away. “You can’t tell anyone I’m out here. I’ll never be allowed to again…”

Rin bit his lip, sizing up the smaller body in front of him before sighing. 

“Alright… but I’m coming back with you to the company. And we’re going right now.”

Begrudgingly HARU let him lead them back towards the glinting towers and away from the freedom of the city.

 ------

“HARU? You’re back early.”

Makoto peeped out from his room, door open just a crack. Whenever HARU wandered out in his place he stayed in his dorm, either sleeping or reading or some other activity to pass the time. Although HARU never stayed in the compound, being checked out in the registry and then wandering the halls would definitely raise suspicions. He was fortunate enough that he was only assigned to be HARU’s engineer and no one else’s. If the android wasn’t in examinations he was almost never called in unless for emergencies. And on afternoons such as this one he typically got 3 or so hours to himself to do whatever he liked, but today HARU was back within 90 minutes. Something was up.

“I ran into someone…” muttered HARU, shoving the door open as he walked inside and letting Rin come into Mako’s field of view. 

“Rin? What are you doing here?” Makoto gasped in surprise, flinging open the door to greet him. Rin smirked and clapped Makoto on the shoulder before making his way in as well.

“I finished my contract in the States so I’m back in Japan for work. With any luck we’ll be working together again.”

“You mean you’re applying here?”

“Already have. Seeing as I interned here before it seemed like the best choice. Plus there’s plenty of things to test my skills.” On this last remark Rin eyed HARU, letting his gaze trace over the synthetic body as it undressed. “He made any progress since I left?”

Makoto shook his head. “Same status as then. No new personality codes unlocked. They’ve been trying but he’s held strong to who he is.”

“Looks like I’ll get to have some fun when I’m on staff then.” 

“You’re not intending to…”

“Of course. You think those silly methods the other developers are using are doing anything? If he’s going to be broken into it’s not going to be with video footage or happy little simulations. The only way to get rid of those firewalls is through brute coding force. You’ve seen it happen.” Rin smiled as HARU turned to face the two of them. “Besides, what’d be the fun in him if he wasn’t a challenge?”

Makoto was chewing his lip, nervously listening to Rin describe the new practices he’d picked up in breeching security features while abroad and boasting about how he’d improved. 

“Aren’t you worried about how that might affect his hardware? What it could do to his systems?”

“God Makoto. He’s a robot. No matter how complex he appears to be, so long as he’s backed up anything can happen to his body and you can recover him.”

“I’m right here you know!” HARU’s shout caused the two men to jump on the spot. He glared at them each in turn, Makoto shrinking back against the wall as Rin rolled his eyes and gave an innocent little whistle. “You don’t need to treat me like I don’t understand anything. Like I’m just a thing.

He stormed out of the dorm, slamming the door behind him before he could hear Makoto call after him like he knew he would. Their words were still echoing in his head as he fled further through the housing building, hoping to lose himself sufficiently that no one would find him. 

After all this time, Rin was still the same.

 -------

“Dr. Nanase! Dr. Nanase! I know you’ve told me before, but how’s this one supposed to function again?” A newest developer intern was pouring over HARU yet again, eyes glistening like the new staff always did when they met him. The boy was young, somewhere under 20, with long red bangs that swung with every turn of his head. 

The elder woman chuckled, stepping next to the stranger and ruffling HARU’s raven tresses. “Now, now Matsuoka-kun, he has a name you know. You don’t have to go through me every time you’re curious about something to do with him.”

“But still, how does he work? I’ve heard about the AI unit in him from everyone else, but what makes him so special?”

“I learn,” snapped HARU, tired of being left out of the conversation. There was something about how this redhead looked at him, something… strange.

“You’re right HARU,” chimed in Makoto, who’d been working at the back of the lab on some synthetic skin gloves at the request of Dr. Nanase. “But you’re a bit different from other AI. You don’t have access to all emotional programs or thought algorithms right away. You have to construct a certain percent of them yourself before you gain access to the ones Nanase-sama’s coded for you. Until then no one can see your programming. That’s right, isn’t it?”

Nanase smiled, nodding at Makoto’s comment. 

“You’re right Mako-kun. Rather then let him have full run of everything, he has to develop his emotions himself. Who he turns out to be in the end will be determined by what he does and how he reacts in the world around him. Just like how a child develops as much through nurture as they do nature.”

Matsuoka had spun back around to the doctor once more. “Wait, so how do you keep him from accessing it all? Couldn’t someone just connect him to a mainframe and unlock everything?”

“Oh it’s nothing really,” the old woman smiled. “Just a few firewalls protecting each layer to deter cheaters. It’s got quite a few of my colleagues frustrated that they can’t see my handiwork. Now if you boys will excuse me I have a meeting to be at. Makoto-kun, you’ll finish those covers for HARU, won’t you?”

“Yes ma’am!” called Makoto, sending her off with a wave and cheery smile before returning to his work. HARU made his way to sit down to read the most recent book Dr. Nanase had left him (even if he couldn’t wander as freely as he’d like, he could still do so through a good story). He was stopped by the intern however, the boy grabbing his wrist and leading him towards a terminal.

“You don’t mind if I quickly check something, do you?” HARU shrugged and allowed a cable to be attached to his earport. People were inspecting him all the time, what was one more? Makoto had stopped working at this point, looking up at the pair of them with a wrinkled brow. 

“Matsuoka-kun… what are you doing?”

“Please,” smirked the redhead, “call me Rin. And I’m going to check just how special this code of Nanase-sama’s is.” His fingers were already flying across the keyboard, pouring over the symbols on screen. “Looks like he’s encrypted, but that’s not going to be too hard to get around…”

“Rin-kun… be careful… HARU’s a delicate being. You don’t want to mess anything up.”

“Oh come on Makoto, he’s a robot. The only thing that makes him unique is his programming. And so long as Nanase’s backed that up there’s nothing to lose. Besides,” Rin looked back at the engineer with a devilish grin, “it’s been a while since I’ve been challenged by some security features.” His finger tapped the return key.

Instantly HARU felt his processors whir, trying to keep up with the mainframe as it scanned through his files. Rin had connected his personal computer as well, typing furiously. 

“Seems reminiscent of C++ formatting wise, but the commands seem to be assigned different names… almost too easy. Just need to convert him over” Another few keys and HARU felt his head spin. The visual sensors in his right eye flickered and he fought as he felt his control of his left leg give way.

“RIN WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Makoto had bolted from his workbench in horror, grabbing HARU to steady him. The thought to thank him crossed the robot’s mind, but he wasn’t sure he could control himself enough to do so.

“Just converting to a more basic format. He’ll be fine after all his commands shift over. Calm down a bit. This won’t take long.”

HARU gritted his teeth. He wasn’t just about to let this punk waltz in and take control of him this easily. Closing his eyes, he focused against the streams of commands rushing through his head. He had to keep a level head.

“Found a firewall! Now to tackle this baby.”

“Rin, stop!” cried Makoto. Desperation was leaking from the edges of his voice. His fingers hovered over the cables attached to HARU “What if you hurt him? I can’t let you.”

“Unplug him now and you’ll risk him loosing functionality. His code’s only half converted. His indexes will be out of whack and you won’t be able to fix that with a screwdriver.”

Makoto stammered, looking down at HARU, before lifting him gingerly into his arms and carrying him around the console until he was standing shoulder to shoulder with Rin. He glared down at the intern, emerald eyes flashing dangerously. 

“Stop it right now. Change him back and I won’t tell Nanase-sama.”

HARU’s brow wrinkled. They were talking as if he wasn’t even there. Didn’t he even get a say in this all? Still, he was a little to preoccupied with the siege going on in his head to butt into the argument. There was no way he was letting Rin get the upper hand this easily…

“What? What the hell did he just do?” The sounds of typing stopped.

“Huh?” came Makoto’s voice as his touch sensors felt a hand squeeze his arm.

“The robot just swapped coding languages! Like that!” Rin snapped his fingers. “He’s all in something else now, I think Visual Basic.”

HARU allowed himself to smile as he felt some functionality return to his limbs. As if dear old Nanase would have left him defenseless. 

“Oh fine… if he’s going to be like this, might as well just go the direct route to get through him. At least the firewall code didn’t switch that much.”

The assault of his mind resumed with even more force. HARU screwed his eyes shut more, allowing himself to give up control of his body to protect his mind. He jumped again, hearing Rin cry out as he swapped to Delphi quickly and then Python before the developer had time to change his commands. It was a race between the two; to see who could outmaneuver the other and maintain the upper hand. His fans picked up speed, trying to cool his body as he danced around Rin and his curses. He’d never needed to put up a fight this long. Other programmers would quit after the first or second jump, frustrated over having to restart their entire code mid-command. Rin kept at it, and occasionally dealt a blow. It was almost as if he was writing in all languages, sending random commands and waiting for the two of them to meet in the same one. 

HARU’d never felt this before. The burning desire to outcompete someone, to show them up, the need to triumph over someone else. But here he was, doing it, and actually winning. 

And then he felt it. 

The sudden jolt of a broken firewall. 

His mind stopped for an instant, everything else paused as new algorithms gushed forth and bridged connections inside him. And then everything was quiet. No more sounds of a keyboard, no more whir of his fan motors. Just the sounds of the two humans in the room breathing in and out. 

“HARU?” It was Makoto who broke the silence, shifting the robot against his chest as he pulled out a penlight and began inspecting him thoroughly. “Are you okay? You just had a firewall fall, didn’t you?”

Begrudgingly he nodded, avoiding the look of triumph Rin gave him as he let Makoto disconnect him. 

“One down, how many more to go?” Rin smiled and petted HARU on the head. "It wasn’t as hard as the others made it out to be. After all, in the end you're no match for a human are you? Because in the end, you're just metal and wires."  
HARU shoved Rin's hand aside, pulling away from Makoto's arms and storming out of the laboratory. The triumphant laugh behind him taunted his receding back and he felt the strong urge to walk back in and punch the cocky redhead in the face for all he was worth. He was better then that. As the door slid shut behind him he hear Makoto utter a little gasp of surprise.  
\-------  
Back in the present HARU slid down against an unmarked door and thought back on Nanase's dying words, 6 months after that ordeal.  
"My hope for you is that you can eventually live your life out as a human... to be unmistakable and treated like a real person. It's a shame I won't be around to see it realized."  
He bowed his head, covering his face from the outside world.

“Just metal and wires…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Totally was not intending for Rin to come off like an asshole who cares nothing about Haru's well being, but it's kinda how the plot led me for this section


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Huge apologies to anyone actually following this for how long it took me to write this out. Started it, then had to rewrite the argument when I realized Haru was getting a bit too OOC, then got interrupted part-way through with the reality of finals and haven't had much breather time until today.

Much to HARU’s distaste, Rin found work in the programing department. Despite the fact it was a completely different sector, focusing on troubleshooting and designing new robots, just the thought of him being in the same building left HARU grinding his teeth. It had been a habit he’d picked up from Nanase, back when he was copying her every action in his first few months of operation. Makoto reminded him to stop every time he caught him, but Rin’s presence wasn’t something HARU could just ignore.

The one small fortune in all this was that he rarely saw the developer except the occasional lunch break. Whenever the familiar shark toothed grin would appear Makoto would wander over to greet him and strike up some idle conversation while HARU hung back at the other end of the room, pretending to be absorbed in some task or novel. Whether he understood the android’s feelings or not, there was an unspoken understanding that Makoto was to keep Rin distracted until he had to return to his work. All connection cables were stashed away under lock and key.

It was nearly three weeks after Rin’s return that Makoto finally confronted him about it.

“I get the sense that you’re not happy Rin’s back.” He was in the middle of polishing HARU’s eyes and reapplying lost eyelashes, so there was no escaping away.

HARU gave him as much of a stony look as he could while having his eyelids held in place. “What gave you that idea?”

“You avoid him as much as you can, you’re grinding your teeth again, even though I told you ages ago not too, and you change the subject as fast as you can whenever he’s mentioned. Plus when you brought him back that day you stormed out and I couldn’t find you for hours.”

He put the threader he was using down and held HARU’s face in his hands.

“I know back when Rin was here last he really did a number on you, and I’m not about to let him risk your safety over something as silly as a challenge for himself. But… is there something else I don’t know about bothering you? Did he try to do something else?”

HARU looked down, trying to avoid the concerned gaze. He bit the inside of his cheek and shook his head. In the end, Makoto was human.

“It’s nothing you would understand.”

He could hear Makoto swallow down his words, trying to hold back from saying anything. It would only last a minute, this silence, before the brunette caved and insisted to hear his reason.

“Alright…” he said at last. “I won’t ask if you don’t want to say. But you know you can talk to me about anything if you need me.”

And with that he set right back and cleaning HARU without so much as another peep. No attempts to start a one-sided conversation, no looks of motherly worry; just the typical set jaw the engineer always wore when focused on a task. He was never like this. Makoto would always gently prod and pester until he got some response that satisfied him. HARU wondered if this was some new tactic of his, one where he’d sit patiently and wait until enough guilt built up in his target that they’d spill everything.

And it was working. He wanted to tell Makoto. His lips opened, his processors racing as he thought of how to word this…

“Makoto! You feel like going out to get some grilled meat tonight?”

HARU inwardly cursed (he’d learned enough from frustrated programmers over the years). Rin was here. Just great.

“Ah, Rin! I guess I’m free tonight, I don’t see why not.” Makoto was his usual cheery self, as always. “Have you grabbed lunch yet?”

“Yeah, and I picked up a sandwich for you too. Figured you’d be in here working on him.”

HARU huffed and turned away, eliciting a groan of frustration from Makoto as the eyelash he was fitting fell to the ground.

“You’re adding eyelashes?” Rin inquired, a dubious look on his face. “Why? He’s an android. He doesn’t need them.”

“Nanase-sama always insisted that his face be as human as possible. I can’t let her wishes go unanswered. It’s not right to go against a deceased mentor, especially since she taught me so much.”

Rin sat down next to Makoto, watching over his shoulder as he worked. “I always thought she was a programmer, not an engineer. Did she teach you how to code or something? Do you know how he runs?”

“Not at all,” chuckled Makoto. “I was always horrible in my computer science classes, but she took a shine to me during my co-op term here and I worked under her ever since. She said I was one of the types of people that could help HARU succeed. “

HARU caught the snicker Rin forced back. Makoto didn’t seem to notice

“You’re all done HARU, you can move now,” he said with his usual smile and hair ruffle.

On any other day he’d make himself scarce, get as far away from Rin and his hungry gaze as possible and enjoy his solitude. But not today, Rin’s presence had bothered him long enough. Avoidance was getting tiresome.

He cocked his head. “Why do you find it so funny Nanase-san found Makoto valuable?”

“Ehhhhh?” Makoto spun around to look at Rin. “You don’t really think that do you?

The redhead shot HARU a ‘how dare you tell him’ look. He stuttered, failing to change the subject to anything else under Makoto’s worried gaze. Realizing there was no avoidance of it, he shrugged, composing himself before he turned back to Makoto.

“I just don’t see it. You’re all about his physical appearance. You can’t code for shit. What makes him special is his programming. If you can’t even code basic scripts how are you of any help in making him improve?”

Makoto looked genuinely hurt at the remark. HARU could see his eyes grow wetter, but no tears fell. He seemed resolute on not crying in front of Rin.  
“I-I might not be able to do anything like that, but I’m the only one that knows how he works. I’m the only one who can maintain him properly. That counts for something!”

“Yeah, yeah. Fair enough for an engineer like you. You’ll never be able to breech one of his firewalls though,” he said, raising one red eyebrow. “No one can. Except for me that is.”

The brunette glared at Rin, cheeks sucked in as if he was holding back.. His eyes flicked over to HARU before focusing back on his insulter.

“You’re wrong,” he said through clenched teeth.

“What?”

“You’re wrong,” he repeated, standing up to full height. HARU had to admit it; when Makoto wanted to he could be pretty intimidating. “You can’t. You can’t get through his firewalls either.”

“What? What are you talking about?” HARU’s mouth hung open, staring at Makoto. He’d felt it. They’d followed up after… it had unmistakably happened. And yet…

“You heard me. I checked the monitor. That firewall that fell? It wasn’t the one you were targeting.”

“You’re lying!” Rin hissed.

“See for yourself.” Makoto gestured at his laptop. “Even as a lowly engineer, I can read stats off a screen. The one you were targeting’s still there.”

Rin strode over, shoving Makoto out of the way as he read over the program files. HARU watched as the developer’s face turned as red as his hair. He caught Makoto chewing his lip, a tell tale sign of guilt from revealing this. But it vanished as soon as he noticed it, replaced with a stone set jaw. Was it actually true?

Although he couldn’t tell one piece of his algorithms from another, he’d never known Makoto to lie. Peeking over the shoulders of the other two all he saw were symbols he couldn’t care less about. If Makoto said he’d outmaneuvered Rin then he had. He could feel the corners of his mouth twitch into a smile. A warmth radiated through him as Rin frantically scrolled faster and faster, his voice rising. It felt strangely… good watching the developer falter. Relieving, that he hadn’t been bested.

“No. No this can’t be! You put it back up! You’re lying!” Rin grabbed Makoto’s shoulders and pulled him eye to eye. He was practically shrieking at this point

“If the firewall I was targeting didn’t fall, then which one did?!” His rival was panting now, a halo of sweat on his forehead, eyes unfocused as he tried to process it all.

This was something HARU hadn’t expected. Rin had unraveled within seconds of the news, all his confidence stripped away in this instant. The feeling of triumph was gone, replaced with a dull ache in his chest. The sensation was foreign and uncomfortable. HARU wanted it gone. He wanted the warmth of success back. But this feeling continued to resonate inside him as he watched Rin crumble in front of him.

A hand found Rin’s shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. Makoto gave the developer a tentative smile. The man’s compassion really knew no bounds. If there was someone upset he had to comfort them, despite any past assery.

HARU groaned, recognizing this feeling wasn’t going away until Rin quit sniveling in front of him. He stepped forward, giving Rin’s back two small pats before pretending to need something on the other side of the room. He could hear the little gasp of surprise from Makoto and the faint swish of Rin’s bangs as he looked up.

“Makoto…” came a small voice from Rin, “what firewall fell? Why’s he like this?”

Makoto shook his head, trying to process HARU’s behavior himself. He chuckled inwardly, pulling Rin into a loose hug and patting his head.

“You brought out his competitive side.”

“What?” Rin shoved himself out of Mako’s arms, giving HARU a suspicious glance. “Competitive? But he’s not acting like it. It doesn’t make sense. How the heck is patting me on the back competitive? This ro–“

“Makoto, key card.” HARU snapped, spinning on his heel and extending a hand. The engineer gave him a confused look.

“Key card,” he repeated again, and made a grab for Makoto’s pocket.

That got a response. Makoto reached around, found it, and held it out. Their fingers brushed as it exchanged hands, the moment lingering for just a second too long. Green met blue, and in that instant HARU saw the worry on Mako’s face. The urge to explain everything to him welled up again, just like it had before Rin interrupted everything. But he choked it down.

“I’ll be out for an hour or two.”

Mako swallowed, nodding weakly as the robot left the two of them behind.

 

* * *

 

It wasn’t an hour, but three hours later that HARU finally returned from his walk. He’d stormed out into the city, letting himself be dragged along with the sea of pedestrians as he tried to rid himself of his frustrations. Rin shouldn’t make him feel this way. He shouldn’t have these reactions to him. He was just another human researcher, looking to tear him apart wire by wire to find everything of value and market it to the masses. He shouldn’t care about their opinions, or what they thought of him.

But he did. And it scared him.

Caring was foreign to the android. Of course when Nanase had passed away he felt remorseful, lost even, without her gentle presence. He’s spent the first month after her death in his storage locker, shooing away other scientists and sitting in dark silence. Yes, he’d missed her, felt the dull ache of loss in his chest, but he was nothing like Makoto. Makoto, who’d taken a week to stop crying every time he entered the lab, who accidentally would say farewell to her as he left for the night, who held HARU’s hand so tightly during the funeral he’d crushed sensors he’d later needed to repair.

Sometimes he wondered how the people around him would react if he was to suddenly break beyond repair. He trusted Makoto to be upset, his careful handiwork faltering in front of him with nothing he could do. He knew the programmers would lament the loss of his code to the world. But would they react like Makoto had to Nanase’s death?

Probably not, because in the end, he wasn’t human. They’d mourn him for a short time and how his contributions to computer science would die with him, but within a month they’d move onto new projects, filing him away in their minds as another dead robot.

Maybe Rin was right. 

HARU shook his head at the thought, trying to get rid of it as soon as it formed. He wasn't going to let someone like that frustrate him so much. His pace quickened, trying to suppress images of a crestfallen Nanase, slowly closing a door and leaving him in darkness. His processors were whirring now, flashes of scenarios, dark thoughts, flashes of anger at Rin...

And then it happened. It had been so long that he'd almost forgotten what it was. His body jolted and HARU had to grab a signpost to keep his balance. Code flooded his brain. 

Another firewall, gone.

And Rin was the cause yet again.

He stood motionless for several seconds, trying to process how this had happened. It shouldn't have. In the beginning Rin's words were nothing but cocky banter, bragging about his ability. But lately he hadn't been able to shrug it off, it was almost as if...

A hand tapped his shoulder, and a pair of women asked if he was feeling alright. HARU gave them a shakey smile, interupted mid-thought, and told them yes, he was fine, just lost his footing and needed a second. They cautioned him not to push himself if he was sick. He couldn't help but let the corners of his mouth twitch that this. He reassured them he was fine and that he'd never been sick before before quickly turning tail and making his way back to the company. 

By the time he'd returned to Makoto's dorm it was dark. The brunette jumped off the bed, rushing over and doting on HARU before he could even take 2 steps through the doorway. He started his usual frenzy of checking, rotating joints here, kneeding limbs there, seeking out anything that might be wrong. For once HARU didn't find the attention as annoying as it usually did. But Makoto wasn't going to find anything through a physical check-up.

He let his head fall onto Makoto's shoulder, causing the other to tense and jump. 

"HA-HARU?" he asked worriedly. His calloused hands hovered over the robot's back.

"A firewall fell today," mumbled HARU. "The first in two years."

He could hear Makoto gasp in surprise.

"Wait, one did? HARU that's wonderful! Isn't it nice to have another piece of yourself free?"

There was the smallest shake of the head, so tiny that it would have gone unnoticed had it not been resting against Makoto.

"Makoto?" came a teeny voice. "What would you do if I broke?"

The man chuckled nervously "What do you mean HARU? I'm not going to let that happen to you."

"I mean, if something happens to me that you can't fix. How would you react?" HARU bit his lip, counting the seconds of silence that passed between them. At 5 Makoto pulled him into a hug. At 7 he reached up to pull HARU's head closer against his chest. At 18 he took a shakey breath and spoke.

"So Rin's words got to you, didn't they?"

6 more seconds of silence, but in it HARU could feel Makoto give a nod of understanding.

"HARU, you're not just a machine to me, even if what I tend to focus on if how you're running. I've been with you far to long to see you that way, especially after all I've seen you go through. If you were gone... I'd mourn you. And I have no clue how long it'd take for me to find my footing again and move on." Makoto's voice wavered. "Sometimes... sometimes I think of you like a little brother. I can't help but worry about you, even when you take care of yourself. You're the closest I have to one. So don't think that way."

They stood together for some time, a comfortable silence between them. The weight in HARU's chest felt a little lighter. But there was still something else.

"You couldn't replace me with something else? It's impossible to replace... a person... with a robot?" He used the word person, hoping Makoto would let it pass by without correction. One less definition slapping him in the face with reality.

A tighter hug was his only reply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So in this AU Ren doesn't exist (we'll get to exactly why later). Hopefully I can get the next part done faster


	4. Chapter 4

"So you're leaving town for a few days?"

Makoto and Rin were in a small cafe, having finally found an evening off to meet up outside of work. Despite their argument earlier in the week, Makoto had insisted they carry out their plans. The guy was forgiving, Rin had to give him that much. He was also a pretty good conversation partner. Back when he'd been interning Mako was the only person around his age he'd met, and over the two months he'd been there they'd talked enough Rin considered the two of them friends rather then engineer and programer. 

Evidently Makoto did too. He hastily swallowed his forkful of pasta, rushing to answer.

"Yeah, I will be. It's my sister's birthday back home, and my parents always like me to come back. It makes it easier for them, and for Ran too I guess. I've already asked for the days off... so I'll be gone from Friday to Monday."

Rin sensed there was something else. Makoto was absently twirling his fork along his plate, acting far too fascinated in the chalkboard menu behind the counter.

"Is there a reason you felt like you needed to tell me this over dinner?"

"No!" Makoto jumped a little in his seat. "It's just, you really sounded like you wanted to go out together the other day. So I thought that it might be a good way to make up for... that." He bit his lip, looking up sheepishly at Rin.

As much as forgiveness was a good quality in people, Makoto managed to take it too far sometimes. They both knew it had been Rin that started the whole issue, or well, more HARU catching him starting it. But here was Makoto, acting as though the brunt of the blame was on him. Like he was so important that anything that happened, good or bad, was his fault. Maybe the fact that one of his crowning achievements in his short career had been proven a lie by Makoto, but  _god..._ if the guy felt this guilty about it why did he even say it in the first place?

"If that's the case," Rin sneered, "you should be getting that robot to apologize to me too.  _He_ started it."

"Rin... HARU doesn't always know better... he's like a kid..."

"And you coddle him way too much Mako!" _Like a mother_ he thought. "You know what he is, better then a lot of people. If you're his babysitter you can't let him waltz around doing whatever the hell he wants. Remember, he's just a robot!"

"He doesn't like that word," mumbled Makoto.

Rin shot him a glance. "What?"

"That word... robot. He hates it. He hates when you call him that." There were now two bright green puppy eyes starting at him, boring into his soul. A maternal guilt trip. 

"Makoto..." he groaned, fighting against the disapointed mom look that was slowly bringing him back down to calm. There was no point staying angry at this rate. He ran his fingers through his hair, looking for the right words. 

"Look. Despite what he's been built to do there's no denying what he is. He's metal and wires and that's all he'll ever be. Even if you hooked up a human brain to a shell it wouldn't be human. So what's the issue with calling him by his nature?"

The brunette sighed.

"I know you have a point Rin, and I can't deny what he's made of. But I think using that word so much is starting to effect him. Another one of his firewalls fell, and I have a feeling it has to do with what you've been saying."

"Really?" Rin perked up at the news. "Which one? What type was it? Did you record the process when it happened?"

With each question he'd leaned across the table, so that he was now inches away from Makoto's face, eyes boring into the engineer's with pure curiosity. He was so close he could see the nervous twitch in the man's eyebrow..

"N-no..." Mako stammered, pulling away from Rin a bit. "It happened while he was out for a walk. He came back and told me about it... and it just didn't feel right to test him then. He seemed off... insecure even. It felt like I would be invading his personal space if I did." He looked sheepishly from his lap to Rin and back. "Kinda like right now..."

Rin pulled away, settling back in his seat and swirling his coffee about. "So what you're saying is you've yet to gather information and report his progress. Isn't that part of your job Mako?"

There was an obvious wince from the other side of the table. 

"Look," said Rin. "How you see him personally doesn't matter to anyone else, but if you let it interfere with your work, if you let it interfere with the research you're a part of, I'll have to report you to the authorities. It's just how the scientific community works. I can't let bad science stand. Just give him a check-up and submit the report. Simple." He leaned back and took a sip, smiling over the rim. 

"But... if I did that... I'd have to lie on it."

Rin nearly spat a mouthful of hot coffee across the table.

"WHAT?" he sputtered. 

"I'd have to... lie?" Makoto asked again. 

"WHY WOULD YOU HAVE TO DO THAT?"

Several of the other customers were now looking at them. Rin fought back the urge to continue screaming at Makoto in disbelief. 

"You're not doing anything illegal? Oh god Makoto please don't tell me you modded him into a sex toy or you're using him to smuggle drugs or something even worse."

Makoto turned beet red. "NO! Nothing like that! It's just... he's not technically allowed out. And this happened when he was." Rin could swear Mako was mouthing 'oh god how would that even work' as his eyes continued to bug out of his head.

"Wait. So when he goes out for all those walks, you're smuggling him out?"

A teeny nod. 

" _You're letting something that valuable out without any protection?"_ Rin was gawking now, but he hardly cared. "Makoto, how could you just let that happen?"

The brunette looked away, staring at his shoes as if they were the most interesting thing in the world and continuing to look at them would make Rin drop the subject. 

"Makoto." He probed again, more firmly this time. His companions's shoulders slumped, defeated. His words started slowly, measured, before spilling forward faster and faster. 

"I wanted just wanted him to be happy. After Nanase-sama died, even though he wasn't crushed, I could tell something was wrong. He didn't want to learn anymore. Back when she was around he was always asking her questions, or finding things to read about what interested him. And then it was all gone. He wouldn't let any one be close to him. He wouldn't ask me things anymore."

He let out a shakey sigh.

"One day I asked if there was anything I could do for him. We were on the walkway, you know, the glass one that looks over downtown? He pointed down to the street and said 'I want to go down there'. And so I let him. It took a bit of time to figure out how to get him out safely, and order a wig that looked like my hair. But after that he started letting people be near him again. He's still not the same, but I can't help but hope that letting him out makes it just a little bit better. I just don't want to see him like that again." Makoto finally rose his gaze to meet Rin's. His eyes were dewy with the beginning of tears. "It is so wrong I just want that for him?"

Rin started to say something, but the words caught in his throat.

There wasn't anything wrong with Makoto wanting someone to be happy. As weird or as silly as it seemed to him, he couldn't stop Makoto from caring about HARU. It was just part of who Makoto was. He'd grown so attached to his charge it didn't even matter HARU wasn't human anymore. The whole thing vaguely reminded Rin of the time his first laptop began to give out. He'd spent so much more time and effor then it was worth trying to repair it to it's former glory. But he'd done it all the same, because he wasn't ready to give it up yet. He'd been attached to a machine too. 

Not that it was anywhere near as weird as Makoto's case. That boardered on the engineer being two laws and a company possession away from adopting HARU as a family memeber. But the attachment to something, the emotions connected to it, that was a part of Mako's humanity. 

He reached a hand across the table, resting it gently on Makoto's. 

"I- I guess I really can't say it is."

* * *

"Where's Makoto?"

Rin hadn't exactly expected open arms from HARU when he entered the lab on Friday, but this was frosty even for him. The android peered out of his storage locker, one hand holding the door open to only a sliver. Those steely blue eyes looked the developer once, twice, before glaring back at him. 

"Don't make me ask again. Where. Is. Makoto?"

"You know damn well he's at his family's for his sister's birthday." Rin had no patience for the robot's shit today. He was already booked solid as is. "He told me to check up on you, which I am. He also told me to remind you that since he's gone, you can't sneak out." The last comment got a grimace as a reply. 

"If I'm not allowed out, just let me sleep." He began to close the door, only to have Rin's foot wedge itself in the way.

"Mako said you'd sulk like this." Before he could get another grumbling protest Rin grabbed HARU by the wrist and pulled him out towards the door. Even under the flailing barrage of limbs that was HARU, Rin couldn't help but notice how soft the flesh was around HARU's wrists and forearms. Although shoulder to elbow was all exposed cables and metal, below was sheathed in a skin-like material. There was even a small mole dotted next to his left pinky. No denying the quality of Makoto's work. 

Rin reached his breaking point out in the hall. Without warning he slammed the smaller body against the wall, pinning him in place.

"Look. I know you don't like me, and I don't like your little hissy-fits. But I'm doing you a favour here. You're going to come with me, and you're not going to complain. Not until we're back in the lab."

HARU glared back in defiance, jaw set squarely. Rin felt a flicker of worry, remembering Makoto's earlier words:  _'you bring out his competitive side'._  A hand gripped his wrist, peeling Rin off of HARU with inhuman strength. His mouth ran dry.

"If you do anything funny..."

* * *

HARU wasn't exactly sure what he was seeing. There were robots and humans everywhere, paired off and sitting together in cubicles. Wires were hooked into ear ports, the sounds of typing a constant white noise in the background. Some were crude, a mass of wires stacked into a roughly canine or humanoid shape. Others looked even realer then himself, completely sheathed in all shades of synthetic skins and hair that he needed to look twice to confirm that they actually were robots. 

He felt a pang of insecurity looking at them. They were so... perfect. Tall and smooth, with faces that rivaled the realism of even his own. Compared to them, he was an obvious sham. Aside from his face and forearms, the rest of his body was cables and protective casings. HARU hugged his arms against his chest. Through the labcoat Rin had dressed him in, he could feel his wiring, rippling under his fingers like a bundle of snakes. 

"Oi, HARU, we're here." Rin nudged him too for good measure. 

They were at a work station almost identical to the others, with the expection of a few photos and coffee cups scattered on the desk. A small grey-haired unit was sitting on a stool, it's blue-grey eyes glossy as if in standby. HARU was relieved to see that aside from it's face it was covered in translucent plastic and steel, a far cry from himself. He bent forward closer to examine it. 

"Hey, Matsuoka," came a nearby voice. HARU turned to see the woman in the next cubicle over peering over the divider at him. "Who's the kid with you?"

Rin glanced quickly between her and HARU. "Oh," he stuttered, trying to come up with a story, "he's... uhm... my friend's... little brother."

The lady's eyes lit up. Apparently she hadn't noticed HARU's true identity yet. "Brother? Oh how sweet that he came to visit. But Matsuoka, why's he here with you?"

Rin opened and closed his mouth like a fish.

"Makoto had to go somewhere," offered HARU. "So he asked Rin to look after me for the time being." He shot Rin a look.

"R-right! I figured he might want to see the development floor."

"You interested in robotics, uhm, ah..."

"HARU."

"Haru-kun! What a nice name. You can call me Suzuki-san," she winked. Suzuki-san then gestured to the female-like robot next to her. There appeared to be two very large squishy balls attached to it's chest. "There's a lot of stuff that's probably very interesting in here for a boy your age. How old are you by the way?"

"Six..."

"-teen!" shouted Rin hastily. "He's sixteen. Trying to figure out what he wants to be in life. Now, I know we both have work to do Suzuki-san, so why don't we get down to it before the supervisor shows up?" He gripped HARU roughly by the shoulders and sat him down before Suzuki could offer any more questions. 

"But I'm not sixteen," whispered HARU. "I'm six."

"Yeah, and a six year old human is supposed to be half your size and less naive," hissed Rin in reply. "Look, unless you want me to be running tests on you here you'd better stop trying to blow your cover as a human."

"Human?" Wide blue eyes turned to Rin. Was he actually trying to pass the android off as such?

"Don't look at me like that. It weirds me out." Rin pulled up another chair and booted up his console. The robot in front of them stirred, eyes slowly focusing on the two figures in front of it before jumping forward to hug Rin.

"Matsuoka-san!" it cried, burrying it's face against the programer's chest. HARU had to told back a chuckle and the annoyed, disgruntled look on Rin's face. "Matsuoka-san you're back! How are you feeling? Have you eaten today yet?"

"Yes, yes Ai." Rin grumbled, shoving the bot off him and back onto it's stool. "Now, can I please get to work on checking you now?"

The little robot nodded, perhaps a bit too eagerly, and sat fidgeting in place. It's eyes flicked onto HARU and back to Rin.

"Matsuoka-san, who is this?"

"His name is HARU. He'll be watching me today. HARU, this is Ai, my... current project."

"Ai?" asked HARU.

"Short for _Assisting Intelligence Unit,_ but also called that thanks to Suzuki-san."

"Ai-tan really loves his Matsuoka!" piped Suzuki. 

"That's enough!" Rin grumbled at her. "Anyway, this type of unit is being developed for seniors who need assiantance in order to continue living outside of a retirement home. It's supposed to be able to perform any household chores, and learn the habits and tastes of their attendee. Unfortunately, that means it'll latch on to the person it spends the most time around... so I have to deal with it being all clingy like this."

Ai smiled innocently at the two of them as if he hadn't just been insulted by his programmer. 

"It's my job to make sure his interaction and learning programs work properly and  _aren't so goddamn annoying!"_ Rin grunted through clenched teeth. "So just sit back an let me work on reducing this personality of his to something normal."

And with that Rin was at his keyboard, typing away like a madman. The developer's methods were simple. Write a block of code, skim it over, and send it to Ai. After observing how the robot newly behaved, he'd return back to it, rewriting snippets or even whole chunks and repeating the whole process until he was satisfied. 

He was different when he worked. Despite being angry at his project when he started, Rin's shoulders had relaxed as he progressed, a glimmer of a smile reflected in the light of his monitor. With each line of finished code it grew a little wider, until a full hour later he was almost beaming. Rin was in his element here. These symbols and strings of words that meant nothing to HARU seemed to bring the programmer release. The only thing that existed in his workd now was his work. 

HARU leaned forward unconciously, trying to get a better look at Rin's handiwork, when his chin brushed against the redhead's shoulder. The sudden contact caused Rin to jump. HARU's jaw was knocked aside, followed by a few choice cuss words from Rin.

"Ugh, what are you doing HARU? Are you okay? I hit you didn't I?" It wasn't an apology, but the android started at the question.  _He was asking if he was alright._ HARU mustered a slow nod in response. 

"Geez, careful not to sneak up on me when I'm in the zone like that. What were you doing anyway?"

HARU pointed at the monitor, glancing bashfully at his feet. "I was wondering... how programming works... All those symbols and words, how do you know which to use?" He chanced a quick glance back at Rin. The developer was looking back at him in shock.

"I... uh... didn't know you were that interested," he mumbled. His eyes flicked around to check on Suzuki, then at Ai. The grey haired robot gave a little wave and happy cry of "Matsuoka-saaaaan". No one else was paying any interest to them.

"Okay come here," said Rin in hushed whisper as he practically dragged HARU beside him. "This company writes everything in a modified version of C++. There's a bunch of shorthands for different simple commands, you just have to memorize them. Once you know those, you can make programs, then you can combine multiple programs together to carry out the task you want, depending on how complex it is. Got that?"

HARU gave Rin a blank stare.

"Uhmm.... let's see, uh... here!" Rin quickly typed in a line on his monitor [import time] and hit the enter key. "Alright HARU, we're gonna get Ai to tell us the time when we ask him. Come here, put your hands here..." he shifted to give HARU access to the keyboard. The android hesitated, fingers hovering over spacebar. He'd never been allowed to touch such a thing. Not that he'd ever wanted to before...

His index finger brushed against the plastic, his arm recoiling as fast as he realized his action. HARU looked worriedly at Rin, as if asking for permission. 

"Go ahead," encouraged Rin. "I don't have all day. If you're not going to do anything, then leave me alone to finish my work."

HARU slowly guided his trembling fingers back and allowed them to ghost against the keys.  _He was touching a computer. He was actually touching and allowed to use one._

 _  
_"Alright. Now type 'If input 'what time is it':' ." HARU was clumsy at the keys, typing like a toddler, hunting and pecking as Rin dictated what he was supposed to put down. It took almost 5 minutes, HARU working at a snail's pace, but the developer remained patient, barely scolding HARU when he misspelled something.

At long last Rin told him to hit the return key. The pair swivelled in their chairs to look at Ai. 

"Ai," commanded Rin with a prod at HARU. It took the robot a second to understand what it meant. He turned his raven-tressed head back at the little robot in front of him. His voice trembled as he spoke.

"Ai... what time is it right now?"

"It's 4:43 PM JST Haru-san!" smiled Ai.  "Is there anything you or Matsuoka-san need?"

"No nothing Ai," said Rin with a dissmissing wave. "Just needed to check." He returned to the console, resuming his usual fast-paced working.

HARU sat there in silence, a bubble of happiness welling up in him.  _He had done that. He'd made it so Ai responded that way._ Rin. Rin had let him do this. Rin, of all people. The android rocked back and forth in his chair, legs curled up against his chest to hide the smile forming on his lips. It was probably next to nothing to Rin and the other developers that filled the room around him, something they'd write in seconds without a second thought. But to him...

"HARU... HARU!"

HARU blinked, broken out of his train of thoughts. Rin's computer was off, the redhead bent in front of him, one eyebrow arched in curiosity.

"You're smiling?"

"It's nothing!" HARU jumped up hastily, plastering his usual blank expression on.

"O-okay... well in any case it's time I brought you back. Don't just stand there!" Without a second glance he was striding down the hall, HARU rushing to catch up at his heels.

As they made their way back to the lab the ghost of a smile still lingered on his face.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Andddd Nitori makes his appearance! Not a heck of a lot of action in this (need to set up for more later), but hopefully a bit more development in Rin then before.   
> I'm seriously dying because I'm stuck between adding to the smut fix or writing the next part of this right away or just other stupid dribbles that keep popping up in my head.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto's back and everything is definitely not okay

The rest of the weekend without Makoto had progressed normally enough. Rin stopped by the laboratory once or twice on the weekend to let HARU out to stretch his legs around the halls, sometimes pulling out a chessboard for a game. Since Friday HARU hadn't been brought back to the development department. He hadn't been allowed to touch a computer either.

It stung a little, getting a glimpse of something new and being unable to try again. Despite that fact he hadn't said a word to Rin. It felt wrong to push any harder. He'd been fortunate to even have everything that had happened that day happen. 

It was late Monday afternoon, close to six, when the engineer returned. Rin was in the lab at that time, a caf bento in one hand and an energy drink in the other as he closed up shop. HARU and the redhead were trying to clean up the piles of scrap wires and papers that had multiplied while Makoto was gone. They were partway through sweeping a bundle of wire figurines HARU had made into a random drawer when the familiar face poked its way inside, waving a bag of treats in his hand. 

"I'm back."

HARU's face snapped up instantly. There was something off about Makoto. The engineer was always overly cheery and good-natured, rushing in to ruffle HARU's head and check up on him after even 24 hours apart. But he did nothing of the sort, just gave a halfhearted smile and wave. 

"Mako... you okay?" Rin had picked up on it too. 

Makoto shrugged, moving inside and flopped down at a workbench. "I guess I'm just tired, it was a long weekend. Missed you guys." He added a yawn, too long and too low to be real, before helping Rin file a stack of papers.

Definitely off. But it was impossible to tell how to proceed. For small things Makoto had always been pretty vocal, and for the larger ones, like Nanase's passing, it had been so painfully obvious that even a chair could have figured out what was wrong with him. This time it was different. Whatever it was that was bothering him, he was trying to keep it from showing.

"Hey," coaxed Rin, a friendly hand on Makoto's shoulder. "If you're tired, I'll pick you up some food and we can catch up in your room before you get some rest. How does that sound?"

"I guess," the brunette sized up Rin's expression, "that wouldn't be too bad." Another weak smile. 

"You head on up, I'll clean up shop and get you something from the caf." Rin gave Makoto a gentle shooing towards the door. The engineer moved with hardly a fuss, despite the fact that he'd obviously be spending the first few hours tomorrow morning sorting the lab back into proper working order, and not just Rin's version of 'clean'. 

HARU felt the distinct need to call after him, to get some acknowledgement out of his caretaker. Why hadn't Makoto come up to him? Why had there been no check-up? Excepting a few tired smiles he'd been all but ignored in the homecoming. Makoto's name tingled on his lips, but it was too late. He stared at the closed door, Makoto's after-image still lingering in his mind.

Rin turned to face him. "Oi, HARU... time to turn in for the night."

The android jumped at the sudden noise. "What?"

"Time for you to head back to your locker to charge. I'm going to go check on Makoto after and you'll see him tomorrow." Rin gave him a little push towards the far wall, far less gentle then the one he'd just given Makoto. 

A hot flash of... something flared up in HARU. He didn't want to be left out, he didn't want Rin to be the one who went to check on Makoto. He was the engineer's responsibility, not Rin. He was the one Makoto had known for longer. He'd been the one to pick up on something wrong first. That meant he was the more important one, the one that should be closer...

"No."

"No...?"

"No!" repeated HARU, taking a step forward and jabbing a finger in Rin's chest. "I've known him longer then you, and I've known him better then you. I get to check on him." The robot glared up defiantly at him. "You can't stop me."

Rin stiffened, eyes darting around as he weighed the situation. On one hand, the very angry, very strong robot in front of him. The sensation of HARU's grip, digging into the flesh of his wrist like butter was still fresh in his mind. On the other hand, an exasperated Makoto fretting over the robot's power cells running dry.

Actually, the decision was pretty easy.

"Fine. But one peep out of Mako about your batteries and you leave without a fuss."

HARU backed off instantly, calmly trailing behind Rin as they set off to pick up dinner for Makoto.

 

"Rin... HARU?" Makoto stood in his pajamas, obviously surprised at the fact he had not one, but two visitors that night. 

"He insisted," grumbled Rin as he shoved his way inside, handing the brunette a container of rice. "HARU's got the rest of your food."

Indeed HARU did. He'd fought Rin in the cafeteria, insisting they wait the extra 15 minutes to order a serving of green curry rather then grabbing another bento and being done with the whole matter. He'd carefully carried the foam package the whole way here, smiling inwardly to himself. Makoto had always loved curry, ordering it whenever HARU was able to stand in wait for more then 30 seconds. He'd even snuck a bar of chocolate onto the tray as they left, Rin swiping his meal card without noticing.

Makoto's eyes brightened a little more at the sight, eagerly taking the steaming bowl from the robot and giving him an awkward sidearm hug. A hushed whisper of 'thanks HARU' passed between them as he set the dishes down on his dresser and began to tuck in.

"So," Rin called from his position on Makoto's bed, "What happened over the weekend?"

"Oh, nothing much. Ran turned 15 this year, so we took her out to a French restaurant she's apparently been begging to go to forever. Spent the weekend catching up with my parents, paying respects at the family shrine, helping Ran with her homework..." Makoto paused to swallow. "It was nice to see them, even if it is hard time to visit. She's gotten so big..."

HARU exchanged glances with Rin. They both knew this was too calm, too rehearsed to be true, especially after how the engineer had been earlier.

"Why's it a hard time to visit, Mako?"

Makoto stiffened, the piece of mackerel between his chopsticks slipping back into the bowl with a faint 'plop'.

"You know... workload and stuff. We're all pressed on deadlines right now."

"No you're not," shot down HARU. "Last week you had enough time to play a full afternoon of Monopoly with me."

 "Oh, right...." Makoto timidly bit a piece of pepper. This was the first time he'd ever really hidden something. Or, well, hidden something from the robot.

It bothered HARU. Even when Makoto had messed up in the past, breaking a piece of equipment or recalibrating his gyroscope wrong (HARU'd stumbled around like a drunk for a full 2 days), he'd never kept it a secret from HARU. There'd been the pressing of a finger to lips, a quick 'shhh' and a frantic look in those emerald eyes as he'd work about setting it right as soon as he could. Even the cases when he didn't explicitly tell HARU what was wrong it had always been easy to pick up on by his behavior. There was an unspoken trust he seemed to have in the android to keep his secrets. But this wasn't the Makoto he was used to.

"Makoto..." he started, only to have Rin interrupt mid-sentence.

"Any chance this has something to do with the family shrine?"

Makoto went pale, his jaw dangling open as he stared back at Rin in what HARU could only describe as mortal terror. The boy looked as though he wanted to flee, but his fear held him rooted to the spot.

"H-h-how..."

Rin looked back at the brunette, dead set on getting the truth out of him. "Did someone die? Grandmother? Aunt?"

There was a high-pitched noise coming from Makoto now, frozen with spoon still halfway to his mouth. HARU was pretty sure Rin's pressing had broken him. Seeing Makoto like this… it was wrong. He stepped between the two of them, breaking their eye contact and pulling Makoto's attention back to him with a tug of his shirt. Their eyes locked.

"I think one of my fans is broken." It was a complete lie, there was nothing wrong with him, at least, nothing HARU would pick up on himself. But internal mechanisms took Makoto the longest to check and were the most critical, and right now it seemed like he would jump at any chance to avoid this topic. "Fix it," HARU insisted. If he wanted a way out here it was.

Makoto finally regained some control of his mouth, no longer floundering like a fish out of water. "Ah, okay," he mumbled, setting down his spoon, a flicker of regular Makoto danced across his eyes for an instant. " Just let me get a screwdriver and I'll check it out." He wobbled over to his bedside drawers. Rin shot HARU a dirty look, then made his move

It took Rin less then two seconds to lunge at the top drawer and confiscate Makoto's toolbelt, shoving the item down his shirt and grinning triumphantly. The brunette stared at him in disbelief, hand still outstretched towards it's original location as if it would suddenly materialize.

"You're not avoiding this Makoto. I'm worrie-"

HARU cleared his throat, annoyed.

"Ah... we're worried about you. Just tell us what's got you acting all weird already."

"Bu.." Makoto made a halfhearted grab at the toolbelt -his escape route - but Rin dodged him easily, grabbing his friend's wrist and pulling him onto the bed and pinning him in place

"Makoto. Tell me." The redhead pouted, poked at his cheeks, shook his wrists, trying to get Makoto's mouth to open and say something. But the boy held fast, lips pressed in a thin line, averting his gaze. Not one to give up so easily, Rin changed tactics. "Should we play 20 questions then? If I get it right you tell me, then you can fix HARU." He lifted his shirt ever so slightly, flashing the leather of the tool belt against his skin. Makoto mumbled something.

 "Sorry, what?"

".. fine," came a small voice.

"Alright!" Rin bounced in place before realizing himself. He stilled, gingerly taking Makoto’s hands in his own. "You know I'm doing this because I care, right? Not because I like to see you uncomfortable.” Warm fingers gave cold hands a gentle squeeze. “Okay, first question, is it a death?"

Makoto nodded.

"Family?"

Another nod.

"Grandparent?"

A shake this time.

"Aunt? Uncle? Cousin?" A shake at each question. 

"Brother."

Makoto and Rin jerked up to look at the android, almost having forgotten he was there as well.

"Brother," repeated HARU. It wasn't a question, but a statement. Everything clicked. Makoto's conversation with him all those weeks ago.  _'You're the closest I have to a brother'_. There had been something odd about his face when he'd said that, a trace of bitterness and sorrow behind what had then been comforting words. Why he valued having someone to take care of, but never grew tired of HARU's endless resistance. "You lost a younger brother."

Makoto tried to speak, at a loss for words. Finally he settled on just one.

"How?"

The robot shrugged. "Little hints here and there." Rin was staring at him in amazement, mouthing what was probably some variation of 'hot damn'.

“So…” tested Rin, “you lost a little brother, and he died right around your sister’s birthday. That’s why you’ve been down?”

Makoto shook his head. “Not exactly… Ren…” his voice croaked. “Ren… he died closer to dad’s birthday. He… he was Ran’s twin.”

It had been years since he’d uttered that name, despite how much he thought of Ren. There was something about it being spoken aloud, the weight behind it and the use of past tense that brought finality to his brother’s life. Tears welled forth.

“Makoto…” HARU breathed, moving to sit on the other side of Makoto, gently rubbing his hand as Rin wiped at the tears cascading down the engineer’s cheeks. He’d never needed to comfort anyone before, but if Makoto was any indication of what to do, reassuring touches were the right course of action. Before anyone could protest, he pulled his caretaker into his arms.

No words were spoken. It felt wrong, bringing comfort through hollow phrases ghosting true sentiment. Instead, he pulled Makoto tighter, cradling Makoto’s head against his neck and letting the boy cry himself dry. _It’s okay_ , he thought, trying to send the message only through touches. _I’m here, I’ll always be here. You’re not alone._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the delay! Kept running into snags getting into the zone for this one, despite how long I've known I needed to get here.
> 
> If you thought I wasn't going to toss a reference to my favourite song in the OST you were wrong.


	6. Chapter 6

“HARU, could you pass me that paintbrush next to you?”

The android groped around the table, not even trying to look for said paintbrush and he continued on with his task. Makoto had brought back a package of air-dry clay with him after visiting his family, thinking it a good possibility for HARU to try something new. His thoughts had been well founded, HARU now fully immersed in his work, rolling and shaping delicate petals for his growing set of clay flowers. Still trying to tease out the perfect shape for a cherry blossom he managed to nick the shaft of the brush, giving it a distracted flick towards Makoto.

The truth was he was bored beyond belief. This growing bouquet of fake flowers was just a way to pass the time. He sighed, pinching the last little curves of the petals and attaching them to the slowly blooming branch in front of him.

It had been this way ever since Makoto returned. That night, after the brunette had drained himself of tears, a smile of gratitude breaking through before the pair tucked him into bed, Rin had pulled him aside.

“Don’t go out for a while, at least, not until I tell you it’s okay.”

Something had whirred in his stomach, fists clenching as Rin stared expectantly at him, waiting for a reply.

"You don't have any power over me," he'd tested, voice low and even. "Makoto is back now, I don't have to listen to you."

Rin pinched his nose, forehead wrinkling; something HARU had only ever seen him do once, when he'd lost a half hour's work on Ai. At last he'd breathed out, looking back up at the robot from over his fingers.

"That's exactly why I'm asking you to do this. Makoto... Makoto, well... He needs someone to keep an eye on him for a bit."

"But he's-"

"He's not fine yet,” Rin countered. “He needs more time after coming back before he starts acting normal again. Just give it a week. One week, that's all, until you ask to go outside again.” Promise me."

It wasn't the usual Rin that spoke, no cockiness in his tone, no superiority when addressing HARU like he'd done in the past. The android felt the urge to swallow, just to see if his mouth was still functioning properly.

"Promise."

And from there on out he'd been stuck in the lab with Makoto, watching the engineer work on his assignments that had been neglected the past week. In his time at the company he'd developed the reputation of having a keen eye for detail and realism, taking extra time to print the faintest blemishes and pores onto synthetic skins. He was in the middle of working on a pair of synthetic eyes, painting over the lenses for the irises to give them extra flecks of color. HARU had asked how he could be any help, hovering over Makoto in the need to do something, anything interesting, to keep him from going stir crazy.

 He pushed back the now finished branch, trying to mentally compare it to the images in his head. Despite it being colorless, he liked to think he'd done the flowers justice, and just in time too, he'd finished the last scrap of clay. 

The engineer was still pouring over his work, adding the faintest pink flecks around the lens rim, covering it with his hand to see how it shifted and reacted to different lights. At some point he'd explained the concept behind them to HARU. Human eyes shifted in shape depending on how much light was around them, and mimicking that with photosensitive apertures made them more realistic. The android had spent the rest of that morning playing with his own eyes, flicking the lights on and off as he watched them grow and shrink in a mirror.

Absent-mindedly he picked up the other eye, watching the pupil morph with every roll between his fingers. The concept had been fascinating at first, but the novelty had worn of as fast as it had come. He eyed the clay flowers; it was the same with them too. Same with sitting in this lab.

His mind was made up.

HARU slammed his hands on the table, Makoto almost falling off his stool in shock.

“I’m going to go see Rin.”

“O-okay? Wait, Rin?” HARU was already pawing at Makoto’s sweater, trying to peel it off him. “Why are you going… and _why are you stripping me?!”_

“Because I can’t go there naked. The people in the development lab think I’m your brother.”

Makoto stiffened, HARU taking advantage of the fact to pull the sweater up over his head and put it on.

“They… You’ve been there before?” His face was pale in shock.

“Yeah, once,” shrugged the robot. “While you were away.” Without permission he was rooting though Makoto’s bag, searching for the pair of track pants still in there from his lunchtime run. “Rin brought me to keep me entertained for a day, watched him code, met his coworkers… normal stuff.”

“And… they think you’re… you’re my…”

“It was the first excuse we thought of,” HARU mumbled, finally fully dressed. The sweater hung loosely around his shoulders, the pants rolled up twice around his waist, shoes 2 sizes too big on his feet. It wasn’t perfect, but all his exposed casings were covered. A normal boy to any casual observer. He gave Makoto a half smile, knowing full well the engineer would probably be worrying about him the moment the door closed behind him.

“I’ll be back by 4. Promise.”

* * *

 

The development floor was filled with the usual hustle and bustle, programmers running back and forth between cubicles, typing madly away at computers. HARU snuck up behind Rin, pressing a finger to his lips to silence Ai before the little silver-haired excitement machine jumped him.

“FUCK! SUZUKI!” screeched Rin as cold hands ghosted against his neck, voice a little too high pitched for HARU to ever let him live it down later. The redhead spun around, eyes flying open in surprise to see HARU there instead of the woman now peering over the cubicle wall in amusement.

“HARU? What are you doing here? And AI, why didn’t you warn me.”

“I was bored.”

“He told me not to.”

Both robots stared blankly back at him, clearly oblivious to their wrong doings. Rin grumbled, pulling his headphones down around his neck and rubbing his forehead exasperatedly. This wasn’t good

“No, but seriously, HARU, what are you doing here? I told you not to go out right now.”

“Well, I’m not out, I’m still in the building.”

“I said to keep an eye on Makoto, which you’re clearly not doing right now.” For emphasis he waved his hand at their surroundings, AI perking up as it swept past his direction.

“Look,” grumbled HARU, pulling the spare chair up next to Rin’s desk to sit. “I’ve been good and listened to you. I’ve spent five whole days in that stuffy lab and I can’t sit still anymore. You wanted me to do that, so deal with this.”

Rin hesitated, hand hovering over his phone. One quick call, that’s all it would take. One call and Makoto would come pick up the robot and get him out of his hair. But something held him back from doing it.

At long last he let it drop back into his lap. “One hour,” he said slowly. “One hour and you go back after.”

The android seemed to swell with happiness at those simple words, the faintest trace of a smile developing on his face, left side curling slightly more then the right, whispers of crinkles by his eyes as he scooted his chair closer to Rin. Subconsciously Rin found himself smiling too.

The next half hour passed in comfortable silence, only interrupted by tests with AI, where HARU would quiz him on what he was doing. Whether he understood Rin’s responses or not, the man didn’t know, but the very fact he was getting answers seemed to keep him in an upbeat mood.

It was in the middle of a particularly tricky sequence, trying to fine tune AI’s aptitude to pick up on potential heart attack symptoms that HARU finally breached the hallowed silence of coding time.

“That part there, it’s not right.” His chin was directly over Rin’s left shoulder, staring at the block of text that should mean nothing to him.

“Ex-excuse me?” Rin sputtered.

“From what I can tell, you’re going about it all wrong. You’re getting him to look for textbook symptoms, rather then pick up on something wrong and then sort through the options.”

“So what your point is?”

“This,” HARU poked at the screen. “You’re going to waste time doing the same sort of thing for each issue. Get him to distinguish strange behaviors, and find the source in his database that correlates to the most of them.”

Rin stared at HARU in disbelief. Despite all odds, and the fact that a week ago HARU hadn’t even understood how to type on a keyboard, here he was, describing a simple element sorting function that worked like deductive reasoning. And scariest of all, it was something he hadn’t even considered.

It took a moment to find control of his tongue again, mouth moving soundlessly in the attempt to form words. “You… how? I mean… You can’t even…”

The blue-eyed robot shrugged. “That’s how I’d try to figure it out. Seems inefficient to have 100 different troubleshooting procedures. Having one that runs through all the possibilities makes more sense.”

It took everything Rin had to swallow his pride and refrain from shoving HARU as far away as his rolling chair would let him. If it was anyone else he’d have shooed them away telling them to focus on their work and quietly fix the mistake as soon as they turned their back. But this was HARU here, a _robot_ , that barely had a grasp on normal social behaviors, let alone programing them, and he was dead right. The first round of developing the program would take longer, but afterwards adding future issues to AI’s database would take seconds. And here he was, the smug little bastard, watching his every move like a hawk.

“I fucking hate it that you’re right.” He spun back around to his monitor before he could watch the robot gloat.

The idea of rubbing it in Rin’s face was nowhere in HARU’s head right now. He leaned back, smiling to himself as he glanced over at the little robot. He knew how to program, or in the very least, the right thought process to go about helping other androids to think. His fingers drummed against his chin with the idea.

Rin was left to make HARU’s corrections in peace, or at least he was for several minutes until the loud sound of throat clearing interrupted his train of thought. He’d had enough of interruptions, whipping his neck around to glare at the intruder.

A tall blue-haired man was leaning against his cubicle wall, adjusting the red frames on his face as he gazed down at the programmer. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything too important Matsuoka-san.”

“Oh you know Ryugazaki…” growled Rin, “just _my work._ What is it?”

“It’s my robot, he’s running a little slow. Response times to instructions are sub optimal and his holograms have decreased in quality by 3%. I was wondering if you could modify him for me. Shigure-san said you wouldn’t mind.”

Rin’s lips pressed into a razor thin line. “He did, didn’t he?”

HARU peered over the man’s shoulder, managing a glimpse at a small form standing in his shadow. He moved closer, and the android came into full sight. It was a short model, around the same size as AI. Unlike the Assistance Unit though, this had far less humanoid features. Half its face was layered in metal contouring, only the eyes and lips in artificial skin, blonde curls framing its little face. Cables snaked from its head and down its arms, branching thinner and thinner until they ended in what appeared to be tiny lasers at the ends of the plastic framed fingers.

“…I’ll leave him with you then?” HARU jolted back as the stranger’s robot stepped shyly into the cubicle and obediently sat down on his abandoned chair. It was at that moment he felt the gaze of the man on him.

It was unsettling how he studied HARU, lilac eyes tracing over him hungrily, wavering at the sides of his jaw.

“Amazing…” mumbled Ryugazaki, reaching a hand out. HARU began to shrink back in fear, only for Rin to step between him and the man.

“What exactly are you doing Ryugazaki?” His red eyes glinted dangerously.

“That craftsmanship… his features… they’re superb. So lifelike… he’s practically undetectable for what he really is.”

HARU could swear his entire mainframe stopped running for a second. _He knew._

Ryugazaki was set on getting another close look at HARU. “Indistinguishable except for the metal of his earports. Gorgeous. Who’s responsible for it?”

Rin backed away, defensively pressing HARU closer against his back.

“I believe you gave me what you came here for,” he hissed. “Now leave, before I have to escort you out myself.” Rin’s lips curled up in a snarl, showing the tips of his jagged teeth. “Get out of my sight.”

The blue-haired man paused, obviously conflicted between HARU’s enticing appearance and Rin’s threats. At last he stepped down, turning tail and rushing away before he got to see just what Rin’s plans for him were. The android barely had time to breathe a sigh of relief before the red-haired programmer was leading him the opposite way.

“Where are we going?” he stammered.

“Back. Away from people like him. Don’t fight me on this.”

All HARU could do was follow, staring blankly at the hand that was guiding him back to Makoto.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've taken up the habit at leadership conferences of making as many miniature roses as I can out of model magic and dangggg it's a good way to pass the time. 
> 
> Small nod to those of you asking if there'd be rinharu in this one, it got ended up happening along with Rei and Nagisa. For those curious, Rei works in the physical design department, working on the aesthetics of robots and making them more humanoid. Not sure how much I want to include them in the main story but if I get the motivation will likely have a side story going with them.
> 
> ... this got 1/5 of what I was aiming to have happen in this chapter. Looks like what I've been looking forward to writing for the past 5 chapters will have to wait a little longer.

**Author's Note:**

> Playing with ideas I've had for a while around this concept. Will be updated intermittently when I can find time to write between finals
> 
> Also I'm really really sorry if the C++ coding is off. I have experience in Python only, but that's not as common a language as C derived ones, so I don't know if the inputing or establishment of loops works the same >


End file.
